Lack of basic health care means that every minute a mother dies unnecessarily. Sarah Blakemore takes a look at how Oxfam activists are fighting this terrible situation.

Last August I was unpacking thousands of parcels of knitted squares. Each knitted square was made to represent a woman who would have survived pregnancy and childbirth if she hadn’t of missed out on the care that she needed simply because she was too poor to pay.

This amazing knitted petition showed just how much people in the UK care about health care for all. We worked out that in total activists spent almost six and a half years knitting. Behind the squares were sad, moving and inspiring stories.

One 87 year-old woman, who remembered Britain before the NHS, knitted squares to remember two babies she had lost. She wanted to express her sadness that other mothers in poor countries are not able to get the care they need.

Then there was a grandmother who wrote to me to say she had knitted two beautiful squares in honour of her grandchildren and the fantastic care her daughter received during their births.

Now we’ve got some good news. Gordon Brown has hinted that he will announce a new deal to fund free public health care for mothers and babies in a number of poor countries. He is due to make his announcement at the UN General Assembly on the 23rd September.

But announcements alone can’t save lives. We need to put pressure on the PM to make sure that this works for poor people. To make a real difference he must guarantee to put new money on the table and not just announce money that was already committed for development. He also has to do everything he can to get other rich countries on board.

But if he is serious about being at the front of this battle he should expand the scheme to include more developing countries and make sure that it challenges the unfair system of user fees that stop many poor people from getting the health care they need.

When I was knitting my squares for the campaign I was reminded of what access to free health care has meant to me. When my son was born he was two weeks late, there were complications

with the delivery and we needed emergency care. We were both fine in the end but only because we were looked after by trained medical staff in a well equipped hospital.

We’ve teamed up with our UK allies, most notably Mumsnet, and we want you to tell Gordon Brown your story about the difference free health care has made to you. Show him that people in the UK want him to help give mums and babies in poor countries the same care.

Tags: Gordon Brown, knitting, maternal mortality, Prime Minister, un

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 27th, 2009 at 2:55 pm and is filed under 'For All' health and education campaign, Campaigns, Campaigns Blog, Campaigns News, You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.